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@ twofish
2025-05-07 08:32:18
As stated by Itzhak Bentov:
"While in the last few years we have been witnessing a great increase in the area of psychic phenomena, still the majority of people suffer from what one may call the "giraffe syndrome," which goes as follows: One nice day an elderly resident of the Bronx decides to visit the zoo. As he walks along, admiring all the unusual animals, he suddenly finds himself staring at a set of very tall legs. As he lifts his eyes, he finds the belly of the animal connecting those legs; he keeps looking up, and all he sees is neck, neck, and more neck, and then, somewhere up in the clouds, a head. "No," he says, "this is impossible. There is no such animal." And with that he turns away from the giraffe and walks calmly on, not casting even a single glance back at it. Most people have the giraffe syndrome when it comes to those controversial areas. Especially so affected are scientists, with the exception of a very few pioneering spirits. The problem is that they view reality through a tiny window, and they like to stay within the frame of that window. They decide that if the giraffe is too big for their window, then it's too bad for the giraffe; as far as they are concerned, it is nonexistent. Fortunately, the levels of consciousness into which I divide the different phenomena are easily available, so that anyone who is willing to spend the time and effort does not need to rely on my description of things. He can go to the zoo and see things for himself."
I find it difficult to see things in this way (through a tiny window), but I think it's important to see things from their point of view. You literally have to cut a small slit through an opaque frame to see the one thing, tilt your head to see the other thing, and then imagine that somehow these two things do not have a unified connection.
The difference between the giraffe syndrome and this meme is with what Bentov is describing is one person's perspective of all these things being different independent concepts with no unifying connection, while the meme below is bitcoin acting as a mirror to each individual reflecting back their own personal opinions and speculations. More specifically, Bentov is describing one person, and the meme is describing many people.
If I were to draw an equivalent giraffe syndrome meme as explained by Bentov, each character below would be drawn as the same individual.
While the giraffe syndrome may be apparent in this meme, the difference is Bentov is providing a one to many relationship, while the meme is providing a many to many relationship.
I think the difference is important because we as individuals cannot take an equivalent perspective as a collective, unless we become like, a borg or something.
https://image.nostr.build/8e74b085c73899f7316c62bb5af091ae9710e7bcf03a1d2a7d0923b290be4490.jpg